Shrinking Budgets Forcing Cuts in Summer-Recreation Programs

In some urban areas around the country this summer, the signs of
fiscal distress may be clearest to those least able to understand
them.

Children who last summer may have taken for granted free swimming
lessons or the attention of a tennis or art instructor will in some
cities have to confront an adult-world recessionary reality: the city
can no longer afford to pay for those services.

Budget cuts to municipal summer-recreation programs for children are
seemingly widespread, with officials of eight cities--including
Atlanta, Boston, New York City, and Portland, Ore.--interviewed last
week reporting that shrinking city budgets had forced at least some
change in services or in the way they are paid for.

The outlook for program cutbacks is most dismal in New York--where
all of the city's summer day camps and supervised playgrounds are
slated for cancellation--and in Bridgeport, Conn., which had already
virtually eliminated its recreation division even before the city
declared bankruptcy this month. (See related story, page 5.)

Elsewhere, summer programs appear to be less threatened, because
officials have made a commitment to spare youth services or because
preserving programs for thousands of otherwise unoccupied youngsters is
deemed a matter of public safety.

Nonetheless, civic belt-tightening nationwide has forced managers to
increase or begin charging fees for swim classes and camps, to seek
corporate sponsorships, or to just make do with old baseball gloves or
rickety table-tennis equipment.

One exception is Washington, where this summer's recreation budget
has grown by $1.4 million since last year to more than $4 million,
thanks in part to Congressional approval of a larger federal
contribution to the city's budget, said Linda Boyd, a spokesman for the
city's department of recreation and parks.

A recent evaluation and reassessment of the needs of 12- to
17-year-olds in the city, as well as community recommendations,
prompted the creation of more activities, including evening programs
such as dances, she said. Nighttime programs, including swimming and
basketball, will be "keeping the kids busy," Ms. Boyd said, and
insulating them from the city's street violence.

Especially given concurrent budget cutbacks in the summer
youth-employment program and in summer-school classes, "we needed to
strengthen [programs] in that particular age category," Ms. Boyd
said.

The city has even expanded its hours of operation for recreation
programs, a virtually unheard-of move at a time when other cities are
cutting hours as a relatively painless way to save money.

In contrast, Philadelphia's ongoing fiscal crisis means it will open
its 80 outdoor swimming pools two weeks late--on July 1--when funding
becomes available under the new fiscal year's budget.

The city's cash crunch has left some recreation sites and playground
equipment in need of repair, and many of the 700 ball fields are not
ready for summer play, said Charles O. Dougherty,
administrative-services director for Philadelphia's recreation
department.

In addition, over-building and lack of money for repairs have left
many of the city's 800 centers in such disrepair that children "take
their lives in their hands" by playing in them, according to the city's
controller, who this month issued a report critical of the
situation.

Some of the centers are so dangerous that at least one child has
been killed playing at one, said City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel,
and the city recently settled two suits that resulted from incidents at
the centers.

In New York City, "recreation is always on the low end of the totem
pole," according to William Castro, assistant commissioner for
recreation in the city's department of parks and recreation.

Mr. Castro's department is expected to suffer the deepest budget cut
of any city agency--a 40 percent decrease--in the coming fiscal year
unless the city council orders a last-minute reprieve in the next week
or so.

If the projected cuts remain, "it'll be devastating" for parks and
recreation, Mr. Castro predicted. Under the current plan, the agency
would lose 1,741 employees, leaving it with a smaller staff than it had
during its 1975 fiscal crisis, he said.

The city is expected to save about $900,000 by cutting summer
recreation programs for school-age children.

The city's 40 day camps, which usually offer sports, games, arts and
crafts, and trips to theme parks, are to be eliminated, said Mr.
Castro. About 4,000 children take advantage of the seven-week camps
each summer.

Supervised playground recreation at 100 sites in the city's five
boroughs has also been cut, as has a summer program for mentally
handicapped individuals ages 7 to 23.

Private funds will keep the city's tennis and swimming programs
alive, Mr. Castro said. Even so, for the first time, fees of $10 to $15
will be charged for the three weeks of swimming lessons.

Mr. Castro's agency is trying to work with other agencies to share
resources or to get neighborhoods to "adopt" a playground. "We're just
pulling out all the stops," he said.

The situation is even more dire in Bridgeport, where the recreation
agency now consists of just one person--its superintendent, Kenneth
Bruno.

What Mr. Bruno calls the "genocide of children's programs" means the
city's 10 playgrounds and its pools and five beaches will stand
unsupervised and unmaintained, a scenario that leaves the Connecticut
city open to lawsuits, he said.

"The ultimate cost at some point is going to be far greater," Mr.
Bruno observed. "What value do we place on a child's life?"

Part of his job now is fund raising--either through approaching
foundations or running special events like the recent "Save Our Kids"
day, which raised between $2,500 and $3,000, he said, or about enough
to open one city playground for the summer.

Private money, largely from corporate sponsors, also figures
prominently in the recreation picture for both Boston and Atlanta,
officials said.

The 20 percent cut to be borne by Boston's $13-million parks and
recreation budget will be spread between administration and maintenance
rather than taken directly out of activities, said Michael Quinlin,
director of program development for the parks and recreation
department.

Thanks to such corporate sponsors as Reebok International, PepsiCo,
and the Red Sox baseball team, Boston will be actually be adding
summer-recreation programs. The Boston Celtics basketball team, with
financial help from the makers of Gatorade sports beverages, for
example, will be sponsoring basketball clinics.

"They're making up for what we couldn't pay for," Mr. Quinlin
said.

In Atlanta, officials are hoping to raise $400,000 of the roughly
$2-million recreation budget from such corporate sponsors as the
Coca-Cola Company, Lockheed Corporation,4and Southern Bell.

While the cutbacks to summer recreation were made carefully to
preserve as much as possible a "major priority" program, the thousands
of children who usually attend the city's 75 day camps will have just
one field trip to a museum or state park instead of two, and may use
older bats and balls, Mr. Hardnett said. "You have to adjust," he said,
"and do what you need to do with what you have."

Meanwhile, officials in Pittsburgh, Long Beach, Calif., and Portland
all said last week that they were juggling smaller budgets with the
desire to keep recreation programs for children intact.

To varying degrees, Pittsburgh, Long Beach, and Portland are all
planning either to close recreation facilities or eliminate some
programs, officials said.

Pittsburgh's fees for programs from day camps to swimming lessons
and tennis tournaments have gone up "drastically" this year, said Carl
Mancuso, acting director for parks and recreation. If that trend
continues, he said, at some point low-income children will no longer be
able to afford such programs.

And for citizens who have long seen such municipal programs as the
reason they pay taxes, Mr. Mancuso said, higher fees are "a hard thing
to swallow.''

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